The Indian cricket team is all set to go into a full-fledged home series for the first time under the leadership of Kumble and Kohli. Captain Kohli and his team have seen much success in the past few months across formats, however, this will be the first instance of this team having the advantage of playing for an extended period at home.
In what will be a long home season, the Indian team will play 12 test matches in the next 6 months and Kohli’s men will kick off a long home season on September 22nd against New Zealand followed by 2 more test matches against the Black Caps.
The team will then play 5 test against England and then 4 against the Aussies.
While the Indian XI has more or less been constant over the last few months, a home season of this proportion is likely to change things around when it comes to team compositions.
Let’s take a look at a few combinations that are likely to see some changes over this season:
Shikhar, Rahul & Vijay’s fight for the 2 opening slots
While the obvious one to miss out of the three looks to be Shikhar Dhawan, Kohli’s insistence on having a player with an attacking mentality will see Dhawan get the backing of the skipper. Given how the captain has backed Shikhar for a place in the side over Gambhir (who delivered a stellar performance back home), it is unlikely that Shikhar will start on the bench.
However, when you add up the strong pace bowling lineups of the 3 touring teams for the winter, and how the ball is likely to swing around in the winter, Dhawan’s position at the top is likely to be shortlived.
It’ll be interesting to see if Murali Vijay brings his past good form to this season, alongside the in-form Rahul.
Mishra, Ojha and Jadeja will fight it out for the 2nd spinner’s slot
Although Jadeja’s batting capabilities and his unpredictable turn is going to hold him in good stead for most of the season, it will be interesting to see how “Sir” handles the sustained pressure over the season.
Amit Mishra’s abject lack of penetration in the recently concluded Duleep Trophy is unlikely to earn him any brownie points with the management and given how Ashwin has grown into a full-fledged all-rounder during the WI series, Mishra is unlikely to see the light of the XI anytime soon.
What will be interesting is if Axar Patel and Jayant Yadav – who are knocking on the door for a spot – will put pressure on these established options at some point in the season. Kuldeep Yadav’s confidence with the pink ball will be another interesting dilemma for the team to look at as we go deep into the season.
Who will don the gloves?
Wriddhiman Saha finally played an innings of substance against the WI and scored a century, however, it’s unlikely that this performance will safeguard his slot for the season.
Naman Ojha and Sanju Samson will stake their claim at some point this winter if Saha fails to live up to the expectation he has managed to create. What would be most interesting is to see is if at some point team India decides to experiment with K L Rahul behind the stumps.
Rohit Vs Pujara at No.3
With an attacking captain’s confidence on his side, Rohit Sharma is likely to command a permanent spot in the Indian test side in the long run. But going by recent evidence, Rohit’s lack of ability to kick on at the Duleep Trophy would’ve left even his biggest fan disappointed.
Pujara showed excellent form and played superbly against under-par bowling at Greater Noida, which will give the Saurashtra batsman the much-needed confidence for this coming home season and will only make things difficult for Rohit.
Replicating his one-day form in the opportunities he gets will be the only way for Rohit to poke some holes into this tight eleven.
Lower Order fireworks
One common theme in team India’s recent performances has been the side’s inability to dominate good spin bowling. Although Rahane has more or less settled in at No. 5, it will be interesting to see if Kohli rate Rahane when it comes to scoring in crunch situations and that too against good quality bowling sides with tweakers that can do the talking.
The curator of the Kanpur pitch has said that spinners can get some turn from day two. What will not help the Indian team’s efforts is if India play 5 bowlers with Ashwin coming in at 6.
Also, as we go along, the emergence of Karun Nair, Sanju Samson and Naman Ojha as potential options will give Kohli interesting options if Rahane fails to kick on.
The Missing Pacer
A lot of talk in the recent times have been about how Ishant seems to have turned the tide alongside Shami and Umesh Yadav to form a reliable fast bowling pack. With Ishant’s persistent lines and Shami’s sharpness setting up the batsmen for Umesh’s curlers, things have looked relatively smooth for the Indian pace trio in recent times.
But let’s not forget that it was not too long ago that Shami was bowling at the pads a bit too much and Ishant was dubbed the “Unlucky One”.
If this were to repeat, it would put the Indian bowling in a spot of bother as we go along. However, it is unlikely that India will play the 3 pacers together any time over the next 6 months.
With dustbowls expected, there is very little chance that Umesh will start in the NZ test series. This means that any injury or loss of form to one of Shami or Ishant in September – October would mean an unreliable Umesh taking on the mantle of strike bowler.
The exploits of Shardul Thakur and Nathu Singh over the last few months would give the management and the captain some hope about the bench strength.
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